Bohemian Nights

Violinist Ernie Gruner and accordionist/singer Phil Carroll play Gypsy, Klezmer, Middle-Eastern, French, Italian, Russian, jazz and tango music which range from soulful to wild. They have both studied overseas, and play and record together in larger bands

(Klezmeritis, Yalla!, Flirting Mazurkas).

Australian concerts highlights include the National Folk Festival and National Multicultural Festival. Phil and Ernie’s five NZ tours have included the Wellington & Dunedin Folk Festivals

and the Christchurch Jazz Festival.

Ernie specializes in Jewish music and Phil specializes in Middle-Eastern music. They have worked together with theatre and dance events for Russian, Armenian, Jewish, Turkish, French and Italian and other productions and communities, as well as parties and weddings.

BOHEMIAN NIGHTS are as experienced at concerts as at the European artform of serenading at tables and taking requests as well as creating atmosphere in a street festival.

The duo was originally named Gypsy Nights after a famous duo that entertained in the restaurants and cafes of Budapest in the 1930s.

Performance History

  2007        5th NZ tour including Christchurch Arts Festival

  2005/6 4th NZ tour : Whare Flat festival & 2 concerts

  2005   CD launches at The Boite & fortyfivedownstairs

  2005        Russian Soup - 2 week season for Fringe Festival  

  2005        3rd New Zealand tour (3+ weeks, 15 concerts)

2004-5  45 Downstairs concerts

2001-4  Wyreena Arts Centre cafe concerts

2004         Port Fairy Literary Festival. National Folk Festival

2004          National Multicultural Festival

2002 New Zealand tour (3 week, 12 concerts) including Christchurch Jazz Festival & Wellington Folk Festival

2001 Weekly performances at Prahran Vodka Bar – “Borsch, Vodka and Tears”

Selected performances include a one year weekly residency at The Block Arcade, The Regent, RACV Club, Titanic Theatre Restaurant, Melbourne Food and Wine Festivals, Australian Short Story Awards, Boorondara Federation Dinner, Bundoora Art Gallery opening. Theatre Collaborations : Theatro Chameleon (Blue Absence), Mt Waverley Theatre (Emma Celebrazione)

Many corporate functions, weddings, parties, shopping centres, as well as concerts and festivals.

Repertoire

Large selection from Dark Eyes to La Vie En Rose and from Ain’t Misbehavin’ to Habanera.

Styles include Gypsy, Jazz, Classical, Continental, Latin, Russian, French, Italian, Jewish, Arabic.

Most of the material can be performed roving without sheet music but for fixed performances Gypsy Nights has a large library of sheet music and can often organise special music for weddings, anniversaries or themed events.

Dress and Style

Depending on the event Gypsy Nights dresses and acts for the occasion. Although sometimes seen in black and white formal attire in background mode in restaurants or private functions, they often wear colorful costumes & are more lively and can interact with audiences for parties, festivals or shopping centres and promotions.

Other Options

Bohemian Nights can also play for functions with Phil playing keyboards or piano.

PA is available and depending on the event and if dancing is preferred a double bass and drums, guitar, vocalist etc may be added.

SOLO:Both Phil and Ernie are in demand as solo roving musicians, Phil also as a cocktail pianist and both work with several jazz, gypsy, folk or classical ensembles.

Phil and Ernie play together in 3 larger bands:

Klezmeritis led by Ernie specialises in infectious East European Jewish music (CD available)

Yalla! led by Phil specialises in Arabic & Turkish music and dance.

  (CD vailable)

Flirting Mazurkas with singer/guitarist Jennifer Hawley plays jazz & European café music.

Ernie also plays in comedy cabaret Jugularity

Quotes

"You guys were, as always, great entertainment. You are so much more than a couple of musicians - you have such exuberance and the music you play is evocative of all sorts of memories, travels, times past etc. We all loved your playing - thankyou. " April 2009

-  60th birthday client who saw us again at Budapest Restaurant

a fantastic concert in Welly last night. French, Turkish, Gypsy, Klezmer ...... Loads of enthusiasm, brilliant musicality.Go see. slan Sue Ikin (director Wellington Folk Festival) July 2007

Your performance added immeasurably to the event - it put everyone in a fantastic party mood. Mary Lou Jelbart - fortyfivedownstairs 2005

It was a fantastic concert, what a way to start the series, people are still raving about it all over town.

Anna Shaw WANAKA New Zealand Tour  July 2005

It was a pleasure to see you again and enjoy your fabulous concert; we had a lot of positive feedback

Mathilda Schorer PUKEHOE New Zealand Tour July 2005

Thank you so so much for the wonderful music the other night. It was perfect for the night and I am glad that I put off my party that extra month so that you guys would be back to play.

A lot of people commented on how fantastic the music and the dancing was, it lifted everything in a swirl of fabulous atmosphere.

Bagryana Popov July 2005

"dazzled, and entertained- these guys knew how to do the biz, with Klezmer, jazz, gypsy, tango, and a bit of classical thrown into the mix."  -Wellington NZ folk festival 2003

"The sensitive an affecting musical accompaniment by Ernie Gruner and Phillip Carroll was exemplary... one of the best productions I saw in 2002."

Russian Soup : Theatre based on Chekov, Gogol, Dostoevsky short stories with traditional and original music by Gypsy Nights, actors : Josef Sherman, Greg Ulfan, director: John Bolton; review by Malcolm Robertson

"Gypsy Nights got the audience clapping along with their accordion and fiddle before the evening began"

The Age review of Theatre Cameleon 2001

"Gypsy Nights treated the audience to a dazzling display of Eastern European and Middle-Eastern music...Ernie's virtuoso violin thrilled the audience, and its expressive lyricism - together with Phil's lively and complex accordion - brought to life the cafe scene of Budapest and Paris in the 1930's"

"Played with sensitivity and humor, the music generated an energy that could only be expressed through dancing"

Wyreena Arts Centre 2002

"Awesome performance" Greymouth NZ

"Bloody great night" Wellington Folk Club NZ

"Great to see people so passionately involved in keeping alive such colorful musical traditions....their music speaks to everyone" Penguin Club NZ

CD REVIEWs

BOHEMIAN NIGHTS CD Review on Tony Thomas' show "Collectibles"

Radio 3MBS - written by Lindsay Coker

Transcript from November 15th 2005 show.

"Two of Melbourne’s, and Australia’s leading exponents of klezmer, folk, jazz, and Eastern European Jewish music are Ernie Gruner & Phil Carroll. Ernie is well known to all lovers of this music, while Phil has become special to all who appreciate the sounds of Arabic and Turkish music and culture.

Now, they have teamed up for their first CD, Bohemian Nights. To say they can get the feet of the dead tapping is putting it mildly, and to say they bring a slice of music and life from beyond these shores is nothing less than fact – even though they were born here. Their cultural heritage glows, and we are all the richer for it. Ernie is a violinist of extraordinary talent; Phil plays the accordion and sings with stylishness and heart.

Enough talk, let’s hear them. Here’s a selection from their new album, Bohemian Nights.

Play item 3

Ernie Gruner on Violin, mandolin and some vocals, Phil Carroll, playing accordion, ney, duduk, and singing, with some of the tracks on their new CD, Bohemian Nights.

They have grouped most of the tracks into ‘bohemian’ areas: France, Italy, Hungary, etc., and thrown in a bit of jazz for good measure. We heard the French, Greek, and Italian medleys, as well as Swing 42.

This lighthearted, culturally exciting disc is available from Readings, price around $25. BN 001."

Review by Jan Forbes for indie-cds.com 2005

This is lively passionate gypsy music to dance away your troubles by; played on abrasive fiddle and wheezy piano accordion. Bohemian Nights is reminiscent of Hungarian goulash, red wine, French bread, Gitanes cigarettes and sensuous painted ladies from the thirties. It is recorded mostly live; thirty-one full-blooded numbers of familiar old Bohemian songs and animated dance tunes, sung and played by two masters of the trade, Ernie Gruner and Phil Carroll, who as a duo call themselves Bohemian Nights. It goes on for seventy minutes. What a find for a theme party!

Imagine the smoke haze of a workers' café in Paris between the wars; cares forgotten as men with slicked back hair whirl shady ladies around a dimly lit dance floor to tangos and waltzes. The frenzy of swivelling hips and slinky shoulders, the highs and lows of passion; the wild and exotic; a little yearning, a little joy, a little laughter; the theatrical and sensual; the dark and melancholy; the nostalgia of familiar old tunes that include well-known standards such as Dark Eyes, Padam Padam, Funiculi Funicula, Jealousy, Istanbul and Moscow Nights; tunes that might once have been recorded on seventy-eights or for old black and white movies. While most other titles are foreign to me the names don't matter because all the tunes sound familiar and are in the same gypsy style. Still, they represent a wide ranging repertoire from many different cultures: French, Italian, Russian, Hungarian, Turkish, Greek, Argentinian and Jewish, as befits the eclectic gypsies, or Bohemians. Highlights include: several atmospheric medleys representing different cultural styles; in particular the Russian medley that starts with Katyusha and as the momentum picks up blends into Moscow nights; and Yuksek, Yuksek, a haunting instrumental featuring the Duduk, a traditional Armenian flute played by Phil Carroll.

Review in ARTSTREAMS Magazine October/November 2005

Melbourne has a reputation for being a multicultural city. Artistically it would be considerably less multi-cultural without the presence of Phil Carroll and Ernie Gruner. When not playing as Bohemian Nights, they feature in Klezmeritis, Yalla and Flirting Mazurkas.        On this outing they divide almost 70 minutes into 30 tracks that cover klezmer, Russian and Hungarian Gypsy, French, Greek, Middle Eastern, Italian and Turkish delights. They even head off to The Argentine for a spot of tango.

Still not content, they do a credible version of Django Reinhardt's Swing 42 with Carroll standing in for Rheinhardt's guitar on accordion. With such a mix, sophisticated shifts from track to tradck are hard to organise. Hence Carroll quickly swaps his accordion for a ney and they move into Miserlou, a hauntingly beautiful Greek melody before darting back to the Middle East for a spirited rendition of Mustapha.

The two klezmer pieces that follow are very much home turf for Gruner whose violin playing skills really shine. Not that he's struggling on the other material. The pair then flits over the Mediterranean for Tu Vuo fa l'Americano and a bit of Italian jazz.

At this point I threw away the map and just listened to the music. After a not so convincing trip to Italy, they offer Yuksek Yuksek from Turkey. As in Miserlou they are able to weave some magic into music that is arguably their real forte.

Bohemian Nights offers a lot of music. Seventy minutes is a long time to sit and listen to multi cultural music. On the other hand if you have company and choose to get up and dance this set wil keep you going all night.